During the 1950s and '60s, he was the main writer of the Flash Gordon newspaper strip. One of his Flash Gordon scripts was serialized in Comics Revue magazine. Harrison drew sketches to help the artist be more scientifically accurate, which the artist largely ignored.

Not all of Harrison's writing is comic, though. He has written many stories on serious themes, of which by far the best known is the novel about overpopulation and consumption of the world's resources Make Room! Make Room! which was used as a basis for the science fiction film Soylent Green (though the film changed the plot and theme).

Harrison for a time was closely identified with Brian Aldiss. The pair collaborated on a series of anthology projects. Harrison and Aldiss did much in the 1970s to raise the standards of criticism in the field.[citation needed]

In 1990 Harrison was professional Guest of Honour at ConFiction, the 48th World SF Convention, in The Hague, Netherlands, together with Joe Haldeman and Wolfgang Jeschke.

Harrison is a writer of fairly liberal worldview. Harrison's work often hinges around the contrast between the thinking man and the man of force, although the "Thinking Man" often needs ultimately to employ force himself.

Personal life

Harrison was born Henry Maxwell Dempsey although he did not know this until he was 30, at which point he legally changed his name to Harry Max Harrison. He was born in Stamford, Connecticut, but has lived in many parts of the world including Mexico, England, Ireland, Denmark and Italy. He is an advocate of Esperanto (the language often appears in his novels, particularly in his Stainless Steel Rat and Deathworld series) and was formerly the honorary president of the Esperanto Association of Ireland, as well as holding memberships in other Esperanto organizations such as Esperanto-USA (formerly the Esperanto League for North America), of which he is an honorary member, and the Universala Esperanto-Asocio (World Esperanto Association), of whose Honorary Patrons' Committee he is a member. He served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II as a gunsight mechanic and gunnery instructor. He lives in the Republic of Ireland and maintains a flat in Brighton for visits to England.

Harrison married Joan (nee Merkler) in 1954 in New York, a marriage that lasted until her death of cancer in 2002. They have two children, Todd (b. 1955) and Moira (b. 1959), to whom he dedicated the book Make Room! Make Room!.

Bibliography

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Novellas

The Man from P.I.G. and The Man from R.O.B.O.T. (1974) These two linked novellas, featuring interstellar intelligence agents, were comedy-drama take-offs on The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The first tells of an agent of the Porcine Interstellar Guard, who performs his missions with the help of several pigs. The second tells of Henry Venn, an agent for "Robot Obtrusion Battalion — Omega Three", who poses as an interplanetary robot salesman while searching for a missing Galactic Census official on a planet populated by paranoid colonists. The latter was originally published as a short story in Analog, July 1969.

Planet Story (1978), published as a large format book with colour illustrations by Jim Burns

Brion Brandd series

Planet of the Damned (1962) (serialised as Sense of Obligation 1961) (vt Sense of Obligation (1967))

Planet of No Return (1981)

Deathworld series

On the planet Pyrrus, human colonists have fought a centuries-old war with the native life forms. These life forms adapt to human tactics and technology, evolving new species so rapidly that natives returning from even brief trips off planet must be carried in protective armor canisters from their ship to the safe buildings, where they will learn of the latest deadly threats.

The first three stories were initially published as serials in Analog Magazine under the names given below.

From Wikiquote

Each of us has only this one brief experience with the bright light
of consciousness in that endless dark night of eternity and must
make the most of it. Doing this means we must respect the existence
of everyone else and the most criminal act imaginable is the
terminating of one of these conscious existences.

Contents

Sourced

With a mental effort, he grabbed hold of his thoughts and
braked them to a stop. There was something new here, factors he
hadn't counted on. He kept reassuring himself there was an
explanation for everything, once you had your facts straight.

p. 85

The compartment was getting crowded as other Pyrrans pushed in.
Kerk, almost to the door, turned back to face Jason. ¶ "I'll tell
you what's wrong with armistice," he said. "It's a coward's way
out, that's what it is. It's all right for you to suggest it,
you're from off-world and don't know any better. But do you
honestly think I could entertain such a defeatist notion for one
instant? When I speak, I speak not only for myself, but for all of
us here. We don't mind fighting, and we know how to do it. We know
that if this war was over we could build a better world here. At
the same time, if we have the choice of continued war or a cowardly
peace—we vote for war. This war will only be over when the
enemy is utterly destroyed!" ¶ The listening Pyrrans murmured in
agreement, and Jason had to shout to be heard above them. "That's
really wonderful. I bet you even think it's original. But don't you
hear all that cheering offstage? Those are the spirits of every
saber-rattling sonofabitch that ever plugged for noble war. They
even recognize the old slogan. We're on the side of light, and the
enemy is a creature of darkness. And it doesn't matter a damn if
the other side is saying the same thing. You've still got the same
old words that have been killing people since the birth of the
human race. A 'cowardly peace,' that's a good one. Peace means not
being at war, not fighting. How can you have a cowardly
not-fighting. What are you trying to hide with this semantic
confusion? Your real reasons? I can't blame you for being ashamed
of them—I would be. Why don't you just come out and say you are
keeping the war going because you enjoy killing? Seeing things die
makes you and your murderers happy, and you want to make them
happier still!"

p. 112

"What about it, Meta?" he snapped. "No doubts? Do you think
that destruction is the only way to end this war?"¶ "I don't know,"
she said. "I can't be sure. For the first time in my life I find
myself with more than one answer to the same question." ¶
"Congratulations," he said. "It's a sign of growing up."

p. 113

Just because you know a thing is true in theory, doesn't make
it true in fact. The barbaric religions of primitive worlds hold
not a germ of scientific fact, though they claim to explain all.
Yet if one of these savages has all the logical ground for his
beliefs taken away—he doesn't stop believing. He then calls his
mistaken beliefs 'faith' because he knows they are right. And he
knows they are right because he has faith. This is an unbreakable
circle of false logic that can't be touched. In reality, it is
plain mental inertia. A case of thinking 'what always was' will
also 'always be.' And not wanting to blast the thinking patterns
out of the old rut.

p. 151

The crossbows twanged like harps of death.

p. 154

The
Stainless Steel Rat

When the office door opened suddenly I knew the game
was up. It had been a money-maker — but it was all over.
As the cop walked in I sat back in the chair and put on a happy
grin. He had the same sombre expression and heavy foot that they
all have — and the same lack of humour. I almost knew to the word
what he was going to say before he uttered a syllable.
"James Bolivar diGriz I arrest you on the charge—"I was waiting for the word charge, I thought it
made a nice touch that way. As he said it I pressed the
button that set off the charge of black powder in the ceiling, the
crossbeam buckled and the three-ton safe dropped through right on
the top of the cop's head. He squashed very nicely, thank you. The
cloud of plaster dust settled and all I could see of him was one
hand, slightly crumpled. It twitched a bit and the index finger
pointed at me accusingly. His voice was a little muffled by the
safe and sounded a bit annoyed. In fact he repeated himself a
bit.
"On the charge of illegal entry, theft, forgery—"
He ran on like that for quite a while, it was an impressive list
but I had heard it all before. I didn't let it interfere with my
stuffing all the money from the desk drawers into my suitcase.
The list ended with a new charge and I would swear on a
stack of thousand credit notes that high that there was a hurt tone
in his voice.
"In addition the charge of assaulting a police robot will be added
to your record."

You're not a homicidal, I checked that on your record
before I came out after you. That is why I know you will join the
Corps and get a great deal of pleasure out of going after the
other kind of criminal who is sick, not just socially
protesting. The man who can kill and enjoy it.

Inskipp the Uncatchable, recruiting Jim diGriz into the Special
Corps, in "The Stainless Steel Rat" in Astounding magazine
(August 1957)

The human race is gregarious, I knew that even though I had
been denying it for years.
I was going to keep on doing the loneliest job in the universe —
only I wasn't going to be doing it alone.

Cold-blooded killing is just not my thing. I've killed
in self-defence, I'll not deny that, but I still maintain an
exaggerated respect for life in all forms. Now that we
know that the only thing on the other side of the sky is more sky,
the idea of an afterlife has finally been slid into the history
books alongside the rest of the quaint and forgotten religions.
With heaven and hell gone we are faced with the necessity of making
a heaven or hell right here. What with societies and metatechnology
and allied disciplines we have come a long way and life on the
civilised worlds is better than it was during the black days of
superstition. But with the improving of here and now comes the
stark realisation that here and now is all we have. Each of
us has only this one brief experience with the bright light of
consciousness in that endless dark night of eternity and must make
the most of it. Doing this means we must respect the existence of
everyone else and the most criminal act imaginable is the
terminating of one of these conscious existences.

The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (1970)

We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It
was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats
when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more
rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building
now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel
there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat
indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at
home in this environment.

A Stainless Steel Rat is Born (1985)

Misattributed

The principles we live by, in business and in social life, are
the most important part of happiness.

This is the radio personality Harry Harrison (born 20
September 1930), quoted in Think Vol. 21, No. 1 (January
1955), and The Book of Positive Quotations (2007) edited
by John Cook, Steve Deger, and Leslie Ann Gibson